CANCHAMP FINAL PREVIEW: CF Montréal, Forge FC battle for 2026 Voyageurs Cup 🇨🇦
It’s a familiar matchup, but on a new stage.
For the sixth year in a row, CF Montréal and Forge FC will meet in the Canadian Championship, after having faced off in the 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 tournaments.
This time, though, after having played each other three times in the quarter-finals and twice in the semi-finals in past meetings, they’ll go head-to-head in the biggest possible matchup - the final.
After navigating their way through opposite ends of this year’s bracket, both teams have managed to reach the final, which will be played at Stade Saputo on Wednesday.
Salvage your season or make league history? 🇨🇦 🏆 Wednesday evening's TELUS #CanChamp final offers very different storylines for CF Montréal & Forge FC – but only one can win out 👀 #CFMTL | #CPLsoccer https://t.co/RTmlVhpfdW
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) October 20, 2026
There, both teams will be vying for history, as Montréal will look to snap a five-year trophyless drought, having last won this tournament in 2021, while Forge will look to become the first-ever CPL team to win this competition.
Safe to say, either outcome will be worth following, given that most onlookers would’ve expected this tournament to end the way it has the last four editions, which is with a Vancouver Whitecaps win. With CF Montréal ending the Whitecaps' quest at a fivepeat with a big upset win in the last round, it has completely changed the calculus of this tournament, which has gone from a quest to dethrone the Whitecaps to a new race towards the crown.
On that note, here are three storylines to watch out for in this final, as both teams get set to put their feet in the starting blocks on Wednesday.
What matchup will be key to deciding the #CanChamp final between CF Montréal and Forge? Forge's attack will certainly have something to say against a leaky CFMTL backline... but Montréal does have a difference-maker of their own up front in Prince Owusu https://t.co/Gv6g9wDdTG
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) October 20, 2026
A do-or-die game for Montréal:
Despite the all-time head-to-head record being evenly split between both teams, with both teams having two wins apiece, along with three draws (one of those draws did finish as a penalty shootout win for Montréal in the 2021 Canadian Championship semi-finals), make no mistake - Montréal enters this game as favourites.
As the MLS team, they’d always be favoured in a matchup like this, namely due to the discrepancy that exists between the budget of an MLS side and a CPL one, even if Montréal are typically one of the most frugal teams in MLS.
Ultimately, that sort of financial equation matters significantly in a one-off match like this, which can often be decided by difference-makers, which a team with more financial weight can have more of. And while Montréal certainly has a lot fewer difference-makers than most teams in MLS, they’ve still got some players who can absolutely decide a game, and that they were able to upset a strong Whitecaps side with a 3-2 aggregate win proved that.
At the same time, don’t get it twisted - just because there is a financial gap between both teams doesn’t mean that there is much of a gap between both sides on the pitch. While MLS teams have historically had the edge over CPL teams in head-to-head matchups in this competition, CPL sides have slowly been narrowing the gap in recent years, and games between teams from the two leagues have always been close.
To return to Montréal, though, they won’t be thinking about any of that. At the end of the day, their objective for this game wouldn’t have changed if they were playing Forge, the Whitecaps, rivals Toronto FC or anyone else in this final - they just want to win this trophy, one that has been very important to this club.
Down and out in MLS, but with a shot at silverware... would winning the Voyageurs Cup save CF Montréal's 2026 season? 🏆 #CFMTL | #CanChamp https://t.co/fYLijyRIxi
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) October 20, 2026
Even before the Canadian Championship existed, they had made winning the Voyageurs Cup a habit, winning it six times when it was a trophy contested between Canadian USL division sides based on head-to-head league matchups between 2002 and 2007. Then, when the Canadian Championship launched in 2008, they won three of the first seven and five of the first 14 tournaments, which is why this current drought of five years without a Voyageurs Cup feels so foreign to many fans of the club.
Anytime Montréal takes the field in this competition, there is pressure for them to win, given their history with this tournament and with that Voyageurs Cup trophy.
So when considering that, and the fact that this game is in front of their fans at Stade Saputo (where they last won in 2021), Montréal was always going to enter this game with all sorts of pressure on their shoulders, and that’s without even considering their status as favourites.
For a club that has been battling mediocrity for most of this decade, they’ll need to embrace this pressure and use it as fuel to get the job done, adding another chapter to their history in this competition. They do that, and perhaps a win could even spark a new era of the club, one that is fuelled by the winning feeling that they have seemingly long forgotten.
Forge’s growing legend at Stade Saputo:
While most CPL sides would naturally be a bit afraid of a trip away to an MLS team, Forge can head into this match at Stade Saputo feeling relatively comfortable about what’s ahead of them, especially considering their last two visits to the stadium have gone.
In 2024, they went there in the second leg of the Canadian Championship quarter-finals, and after a 1-1 leg one draw, managed to pull out a dramatic 2-1 leg two victory to advance 3-2 on aggregate. It was a scrappy match, as Forge scored two early goals before hanging on the rest of the way, but they did well to get the job over the line in the end.
Then, in 2025, they faced a similar scenario in the second leg of their quarter-final matchup against this same Montréal side. This time, though, they had an advantage after leg one, which they won 1-0, giving them a bit more breathing room heading into leg two.
Because of that, when Prince Owusu scored in the 58th minute to tie things 1-1 on aggregate, Forge did well to stay calm. They stayed solid defensively and kept chipping away for chances, which eventually came late in the game, as Tristan Borges first scored in the 83rd minute to put his team ahead again, before Kyle Bekker scored a dagger to all but secure a victory.
Owusu scored in the ninth minute of second-half stoppage time to scare Forge, but in the end, they got it over the line, helping them secure a second straight positive result at Stade Saputo.
They've won the #CPLsoccer Shield & the North Star Cup, made history in Concacaf and upset giants in Telus #CanChamp... ...but would winning the Voyageurs Cup be Forge FC's greatest achievement yet? 🇨🇦 🏆 https://t.co/CGGX8UE4Cf
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) October 20, 2026
Now, they’ll hope that they can pick up another positive result for a third straight year in what will now be their fifth visit to the stadium.
Given that Montréal has picked up just 17 points from 15 home games in MLS play this season, Stade Saputo has been far from a fortress on a typical day, so even without their history, Forge would feel confident in their ability to disrupt this Montréal side on the road, showing that it’s just a feather in their cap more than anything.
For what it’s worth, Montréal is coming off that surprise win over the Whitecaps in the semi-finals, which included a 2-1 leg two win at Stade Saputo, which they’ll hope can boost their confidence in their ability to win at home.
At the same time, against a Forge side comfortable with playing away from home, having accumulated a litany of big game experience in different venues across the Canadian Premier League, Canadian Championship, Concacaf League and the Concacaf Champions Cup, they know that this won’t be their typical matchup against a CPL team.
Can Sánchez steal the show, or will familiar faces shine?
Despite its relatively short history as a competition, there are some pretty impressive past winners of the Canadian Championship, including Thomas Müller, Victor Wanyama, Alejandro Pozuelo, Michael Bradley, Sebastian Giovinco, Jozy Altidore, Bojan Krkić, Bacary Sagna and Ignacio Piatti, just to name a few.
Because of that, most wouldn’t bat an eye if CF Montréal’s Alexis Sánchez, who joined the club earlier this summer, added his name to that impressive list of players to have won the Canadian Championship.
Certainly, Montréal wouldn’t mind any sort of contribution from Sánchez to help make that happen, as since his arrival in the city, he has yet to generate a goal contribution, as he’s been unable to hit the ground running in the way most hoped he would. He almost had a big moment against the Whitecaps, to be fair, as he had a goal controversially ruled out for offside in leg one, so perhaps that’s a sign that he could be set to deliver a big performance in this final.
Because of that, keep an eye on him, or someone like Prince Owusu, who has certainly become a star for this Montréal team, scoring 18 goals this season across all competitions, doing well to build on a debut season with the club where he scored 17 goals across all competitions in 2025. With eight goals in 13 all-time Canadian Championship games with Montréal and Toronto FC, he’s also one goal away from tying Ballou Tabla as the all-time top scorer in this competition, something that he’d love to do in this final.
Otherwise, also keep an eye on Daniel Ríos, who is Montréal’s second-top scorer this season across all competitions with eight goals, as he actually won this competition last season as a member of the Vancouver Whitecaps. With two goals in five Canadian Championship games this season, he’s done well in this competition this season and will want to build on that in the final.
As for Forge, though, they’ll be leaning on some familiar names to help them through this match, with the big one being Tristan Borges. While he hasn’t had the most prolific season by his standards, sitting with four goals and four assists across all competitions, he loves to show up in a big game for Forge, as Montréal learned last year. With Kyle Bekker now retired, the other half of the once-famed ‘Killer Bs’ duo will want to step up and produce another big moment for this club, with which he’s achieved some big things over the last decade.
Speaking of Bekker, however, it feels like his internal replacement, Noah Jensen, could be one to watch, as he’ll look to show why many have been high on him for so long. With three goals and six assists this season, he’s already taken a big step forward and has shown to be unafraid of playing in big games, such as when he famously replaced a suspended Bekker in the 2022 CPL Final to help Forge lift the North Star Shield on that day.
Interestingly, though, while Forge will be leaning on some familiar faces, some midseason signings could be crucial, in Lucas Cavallini, Levonte Johnson and Manjrekar James.
In particular, it stands out that Cavallini and Johnson have both won this competition before, as Cavallini lifted the Voyageurs Cup in 2022 with the Vancouver Whitecaps, while Johnson won the Voyageurs Cup twice, in 2023 and 2024, with those same Whitecaps. At the end of the day, that sort of experience matters, and the same goes for James, who is a Danish champion.
You combine that with the experience that many on this Forge team have from winning countless CPL Shields and North Star Cups, and that could potentially even give Forge an edge in key moments, given that many on this Montréal side haven’t had the chance to lift many trophies in recent years.
In fact, many on this Forge side view this trophy as a big frontier for this side to reach, given the dominance they’ve had in the CPL, as they feel that winning the Canadian Championship is the missing piece to go along with all of those other trophies they’ve won.
Certainly, amid their current battle to lift another CPL Shield and North Star Cup over the coming weeks, they’ll be fuelled by the dream of pulling off a remarkable domestic treble, which they can only do with a Canadian Championship final win.
